After completing a very successful White House ornament fundraiser, and enjoying a delightful holiday dinner on December 7th, the Ladies are taking the month of January off! Well, sort of – We are planning to assist Mary Weber with her continuing Blankets of Honor program for disabled veterans by helping the Religious Ed. middle school students of St. John one evening in January make more of the fleece lap robes to be delivered to area veterans’ hospitals. (date to still to be determined – just call Dana Rowan for more details if you would like to help).
The following is a letter received from Major Ryan D. Seagreaves, the recipient of some of the many boxes of items collected for Operation Shoebox and delivered to our troops in Afghanistan. We feel it is important to share the letter with you and all those who contributed to this worthwhile cause: “I want to send you my thanks for the eight care packages and phone Cards you recently sent to my unit for the benefit of our soldiers. They Are extremely helpful in ways you probably aren’t aware of. We live in a Forward Operating Base which currently supports over 600 soldiers, airmen, and contractors of various flavors, from police Mentors, to mechanics, base support and food service personnel. Contrary to what the American public might believe about the amenities now on bases throughout Afghanistan, we don’t have things like fast food restaurants, coffee shops, or huge PX’s. In fact, we have no PX. Just a small room that we put items from care packages into – we call it Our USO room, or the Free-Xâ€. Soldiers can go in there and get things like Hygiene items, books, generally things that will improve their quality of life. Your boxes went a long way to replenish our stocks an get us through the final few months of the combat deployment. The phone cards I gave to our Command Sergeant Major who distributed Them to the Troop First Sergeants – each Troop received 4 to distribute to Soldiers on the line.
Thank you again for all of your support and please extend my thanks on behalf of the Squadron Commander, Ltc Lutsky, and all the soldiers of the Squadron to everyone involved in putting those packages together. Your support and appreciation is critical to maintaining the high morale of the American fighting
men and women engaged in this struggle.â€
Thanks again to all the Knights’ and Ladies (and parishioners) who helped make this collection a tremendous success.
The Knights Ladies will meet again on Tuesday, February 1st at 7:00. Susan Parks from the Dept. of Mental Health will speak on the “Power of Positive Attitudesâ€. So if you need some uplifting and inspirational motivation to get you through the dark and dreary days of February, please join us. Susan’s enlightening talk will be complimented by hot coffee and delicious desserts provided by our refreshment committee.
So, in keeping with the “positive attitudeâ€
theme for that evening – don’t view the bitter February wind that may be howling that night as a reason to stay home – look at it as “invigorating and energizing†and come socialize with us.
Lastly – as you are putting away this year’s decorations or cleaning out closets and cupboards to make room for gifts received, don’t forget our CASH IN THE ATTIC auction scheduled for the spring. Save those “treasuresâ€!